Jonah and the whale

Cultural  

1. A story in the Old Testament; Jonah was an Israelite whom God had called to be a prophet but who refused to accept his divine mission and left on a sea voyage instead. God then raised a great storm as a sign of his anger with Jonah. The sailors, realizing that Jonah's disobedience had caused the storm, threw him overboard in an attempt to save their ship. Jonah was saved from drowning when he was swallowed by a “great fish.” He lived for three days inside the creature, after which the fish “vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.” Thankful that his life had been spared, Jonah took up his prophetic mission.

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Example Sentences

And while the play is adorned with allusions to “Moby-Dick” and the biblical story of Jonah and the whale, these sometimes feel like forced attempts to add poetic fiber to the play’s standard fabric.

From New York Times • Nov. 6, 2012

That eagerness to appease could explain Donald Sutherland’s performance as Father Mapple, the preacher who delivers his homily about Jonah and the whale from a pulpit shaped like a ship’s prow.

From New York Times • Jul. 31, 2011

One early mosaic shows Christ dressed as the Sun God; another tells the story of Jonah and the whale.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 7, 2010

It has become the coexistence of Jonah and the whale that swallowed him .

From Time Magazine Archive

Though they laugh at the story of Jonah and the whale, they accept every word of Christ, who quotes the story.

From History of Rationalism Embracing a Survey of the Present State of Protestant Theology by Hurst, J. F. (John Fletcher)